Can Pastoral Nomads Return to Their Traditional Livelihood of Raising Livestock in the Registan Desert of Southern Afghanistan?

In Afghanistan, there are several million nomadic people known as kuchis, a generic term used there mainly by non-nomads to describe pastoral nomads. A severe drought in 1998 caused the displacement of approximately 100,000 kuchis from the Registan desert in southern Afghanistan. Most of these people are now living in temporary settlements between the Arghandab and Helmand Rivers and Registan. Approximately 57,000 are being supported by the UN in camps for internally displaced persons (IDPs) in Maywand and Panjwayi districts of Kandahar Province; the rest are living in nonsupported settlements.